something stopped Alex. The nagging sense of this is not right. He tried to ignore it, but it seemed that on top of everything else, he’d managed to grow himself something that resembled a conscience, and didn’t that just suck?
7
It was Alex’s turn to avoid Noah. No more stalking the office. No more trying to accidentally run into Noah while he was working. Alex was done. He was working harder than ever, determined to keep thoughts of Noah at bay with the help of sheer exhaustion.
What was worse, Alex couldn’t even muster enough interest to try and hook up with Matt, who had actually called the center and asked for Alex, braving Carl’s terse replies. Alex only knew about it because Carl had handed him a slip of paper with Matt’s number on it with instructions not to mix his personal life with Carl’s business.
Still, Alex hadn’t called Matt back, which in turn made him even more pissed off. Mostly at Noah. What made it worse, Noah didn’t seem to be that torn up about Alex avoiding him. He just kept going like nothing had happened, calmly working side by side with Carl while they helped whichever injured animal ended up in their care.
That had been going on for five days already, and with every passing hour, Alex got more and more pissed, stomping around the grounds of the center, scaring everybody with a pulse off his path. Neither the animals nor the few regular volunteers seemed to like him much lately, and that, too, was Noah’s fault.
Alex would have been happy if he never had to talk to the guy again, or anybody even remotely connected to Noah, for that matter. Which was why it came as a nasty surprise when Carl cornered him on Monday.
“Need you to come and help pick up an animal.”
Alex gaped at him. “Me?” he confirmed, not sure if he had heard Carl correctly.
The man took an exaggerated look to his left and then to his right. “Do you have an invisible twin?” he asked.
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit,” Alex said haughtily.
“Not recognizing that you are being addressed isn’t a sign of great mental capacity either,” Carl shot back.
Alex raised his index finger. “Technically, I did understand. I just found it difficult to believe that you thought I was trustworthy enough to do something like help out with an injured animal. You seem to think the only work I’m qualified for has to involve copious amounts of lifting and cleaning.”
“You’ll be glad to know, then, that you’ve surpassed my expectations.”
Alex frowned. “You’re making it sound like it was some kind of a test.”
Carl shrugged. “I suppose you can think of it like that. Let’s put it this way, I didn’t think you were reliable enough for any other jobs than cleaning the enclosures and scrubbing buckets. Congrats, kid, you’ve graduated to the next level.”
Alex pressed his palm to his heart and pretended to wipe an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. “A promotion? For real? That’s like Christmas and three birthdays wrapped in one.”
Carl stared at the show impassively. Seemed that despite of giving Alex more responsibility, Carl still couldn’t appreciate Alex’s superior sense of humor. His loss.
“We’ll take the van. Don’t forget your gloves.”
Without further instructions, Carl turned to go.
“Wait, who exactly are we picking up?”
Carl gave him an evil grin over his shoulder. “Wolves.”
Alex sputtered as he followed Carl to the parking lot. “Did you say wolves? In plural?”
“What’s the matter, city boy? Scared?”
“Oh don’t give me that. Like you’re macho enough to go and wrestle wolves in the Alaskan wilderness as a nice hobby.” He took a look at Carl’s hulking form. “Okay. Maybe you are, but I’ll have you know that most people find wolves at least somewhat intimidating.”
“Do they?”
“Stop fucking with him, Carl.” Alex’s shoulders tensed as Noah came out from behind the corner. “They’re probably coyotes. We have very few wolves left in Oregon, and all the confirmed sightings have been in the northeast.” he told Alex. “Oh, and Carl is afraid of cows. You’re welcome.”
“Hey!” Carl protested. “Not afraid. I just like to keep a healthy amount of distance. Cows can be vicious. Some of them team up to coordinate an attack, you know.”
Alex cocked his head to the side. “You own a cow.”
“Millie is so old that even a toddler can outrun her,” Carl said.
“Like you’ve ever tried to outrun her,” Noah scoffed. “You have a vet come in just so you